LCDProc 0.5.4-dev

mdima

Hello everybody,
MDima is back in town and will go on with LCDProc-dev.

Just to inform, my firewall was running for 15 days straight with the new package and when I opened the server's room the LCD panel was still working! So I guess it's stable. I am displaying one screen (the Bandwidth screen) updated every 1 second, so in 15 days it was working a lot.

I try to figure out the problems or suggestions you had in this period…

Ciao,
Michele

mdima

@jpsb:

I just use the HD44780 in the driver list, and by connecting the display, the system log shows "LCD2USB device found"
The display is a little slow, and works best by refresh frequency on 5 or 10 sec.

Hi JPSB,
mmhhh… seems strange... how many screens you have active? Did you have the same problem also with the previous version?

Thanks,
Michele

mdima

@joe_cowboy:

Not trying to go off toppic but if anybody wants to try this tweak for the LCDproc setup.
Added: com port speed select, brightness and contrast. Also made it to where you can type default in the field or leave it blank for contrast and brightness to set to default values
Fixed: com1 to /dev/cuau0 and com2 to /dev/cuau1
Also, not all drivers support brightness contrast so will be skipped if not supported. Same with com speed.
put the files lcdproc.inc.txt and lcdproc.xml.txt into the pkg directory:
/usr/local/pkg/
Remove the .txt extension before putting into directory.
Let me know if you want it tweaked…

Hi joe_cowboy,
it's not off-topic! Thanks for your suggestions… I tell you what I think:

Fixed: com1 to /dev/cuau0 and com2 to /dev/cuau1: This is just the label... the setting is correct already, anyway I change it!
Com port speed selection: I don't think it is necessary. Actually, 9600 bouds are really a lot for the information that the LCD panel needs to receive (40*4 bytes for screen!), if there are some problems on a specific driver we can change it, but to me it looks more as to give the possibility to mess up the things with no advantage;
Brightness and contrast selection: consider that the scale of the values depends on the specific driver! Some driver use a 0-1000 range, others 0-200, others 800, 850 and so on. The user should read the documentation of his specific driver and digit an appropriate value, or the results may be unknown. I would not allow that, same reason as 2);

Ciao,
Michele

mdima

@treffnix:

Nice work.

but i have some trouble with the [pyramid] driver.

on pfsense 1.23 it works fine. so i was sure that the display was ok.

i got the follow erros in the system log:

Dec 30 12:37:27 LCDd: LCDd version 0.5.4 starting
Dec 30 12:37:27 LCDd: Using Configuration File: /usr/local/etc/LCDd.conf
Dec 30 12:37:27 LCDd: Listening for queries on 127.0.0.1:13666
Dec 30 12:37:27 LCDd: pyramid: reading TTY failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
Dec 30 12:37:27 LCDd: Driver [pyramid] init failed, return code -1
Dec 30 12:37:27 LCDd: Could not load driver pyramid
Dec 30 12:37:27 LCDd: There is no output driver
Dec 30 12:37:27 LCDd: Critical error while initializing, abort.

someone knows a idea?

Hi,
did you try a different port? The same "com1" can be selected in two different alternate modes… try to select all the ports!

Ciao,
Michele

mdima

@Spy:

Any way of manually adding drivers for additional hardware? There is a driver for the Firebox X-Core, sdeclcd.so, that I would like to add and be able to have in the drop down list. I remember doing this a long time ago back with PFS 1.2.2, but I can't find a way to do it again.

Hi Spy,
if you send me the sdeclcd.so file already compiled I can add it to the default package… send me an IM for my email address!

Ciao,
Michele

mdima

@mdima:

@jpsb:

I just use the HD44780 in the driver list, and by connecting the display, the system log shows "LCD2USB device found"
The display is a little slow, and works best by refresh frequency on 5 or 10 sec.

Hi JPSB,
mmhhh… seems strange... how many screens you have active? Did you have the same problem also with the previous version?
Thanks,
Michele

Hi JPSB,
after some investigation I found out that on the driver configuration there were some delays that were put on purpose.

I created a new driver called "hd44780 fast". If this driver is selected the delays are not applied. You can update the package when the new version is available from the "packages" page of your firewall.

Ciao,
Michele

fmertz

@mdima:

Hi Spy,
if you send me the sdeclcd.so file already compiled I can add it to the default package… send me an IM for my email address!

I am working on the code, as posted here:

http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,7920.msg226483.html#msg226483

I am getting ready to release an update soon, against 0.5dev.
I can prepare the driver against 0.5.4 if needed.

mdima

@fmertz:

@mdima:

Hi Spy,
if you send me the sdeclcd.so file already compiled I can add it to the default package… send me an IM for my email address!

I am working on the code, as posted here:

http://forum.pfsense.org/index.php/topic,7920.msg226483.html#msg226483

I am getting ready to release an update soon, against 0.5dev.
I can prepare the driver against 0.5.4 if needed.

That's great! If you can give me the compiled version already for 0.5.4 I can ask Chris to upload it then I can include it in the dev package!

joe_cowboy

@mdima:

@joe_cowboy:

Not trying to go off toppic but if anybody wants to try this tweak for the LCDproc setup.
Added: com port speed select, brightness and contrast. Also made it to where you can type default in the field or leave it blank for contrast and brightness to set to default values
Fixed: com1 to /dev/cuau0 and com2 to /dev/cuau1
Also, not all drivers support brightness contrast so will be skipped if not supported. Same with com speed.
put the files lcdproc.inc.txt and lcdproc.xml.txt into the pkg directory:
/usr/local/pkg/
Remove the .txt extension before putting into directory.
Let me know if you want it tweaked…

Hi joe_cowboy,
it's not off-topic! Thanks for your suggestions… I tell you what I think:

Fixed: com1 to /dev/cuau0 and com2 to /dev/cuau1: This is just the label... the setting is correct already, anyway I change it!

Com port speed selection: I don't think it is necessary. Actually, 9600 bouds are really a lot for the information that the LCD panel needs to receive (40*4 bytes for screen!), if there are some problems on a specific driver we can change it, but to me it looks more as to give the possibility to mess up the things with no advantage;

Brightness and contrast selection: consider that the scale of the values depends on the specific driver! Some driver use a 0-1000 range, others 0-200, others 800, 850 and so on. The user should read the documentation of his specific driver and digit an appropriate value, or the results may be unknown. I would not allow that, same reason as 2);

Ciao,
Michele

That's Kewl. Actually I like the ablility to change from the interface so I don't have to dig around in the config and find the driver to make the tweaks… The com port speed was off from mine and the LCD brightness and contrast I could not use default settings. So that is why I made the mods was to make it easier on an end user. Couple of my friends use my tweaks for their LCDproc install. Why don't you drop my changes into your dev box and check out my mods and see they do work. I made comments in the interface so people would know how to use it. Only reason I said 0 - 1000 is what the LCDProc website states. If somebody leaves the input box blank it uses the default settings or if they type default it will use the default settings. All changes I made are simple for the average user to use. It's your app, you can do what you want but I will still be using my tweaks... Thanks for compiling and making a package out of it, great work...

-Joe Cowboy

mdima

I CowBoy,
well… as for your considerations, this is really not "my app", everyone can change it as I started some time ago since was just unsupported anymore. I apreciate a lot your suggestions and ideas, I am only a bit worry that users don't make a mess and a feature turns into a nightmare for 99% of the users.

Coming back to your suggestions, I was investigating a little more on them, and:

Com ports: there are both dev/cua0, dev/cua1 then dev/cuau0, dev/cuau1 for serial ports. I think it is better to add them all, and add Serial port com "alternate", because this can change from system to system. Until now the "com1" has not beed added from the previous developer I think in order to avoid the users to mess up with com1 that is the one used as terminal port in appliances.
and 3) Com port speed selection and brightness/contrast: the situation can be tricky here because you allow the "average user" to mess up their configuration. Every single driver allows only certain speed, brightness, contrast values according to the LCDProc documentation (http://lcdproc.sourceforge.net/docs/lcdproc-0-5-5-user.html). If the values insert by the user don't match the specific values for that driver, I don't know what can happen. This is what I am concerned about...

But if you are confident that for a specific driver the optimal brightness/contrast/speed values are different, please send that values to me so I can use them as default!

What do you think about it?

Ciao,
Michele

fmertz

@mdima:

If you can give me the compiled version already for 0.5.4 I can ask Chris to upload it then I can include it in the dev package!

I uploaded the file here:

<edit: url="" removed="" as="" file="" is="" now="" part="" of="" a="" package="">To recap, this is the new code for the sdeclcd driver for Watchguard Firebox, V1.06. It includes a heartbeat, and a 30 sec back light. It has support for all known keypads, has vbars, hbars and support for big numbers. Some icons were also added out of the custom SDEC char table. At this point, the level of testing is "It works for me". It was compiled in FreeBSD 8.2 release, as part of version 0.5.4 of the lcdproc package from:

http://sourceforge.net/projects/lcdproc/files/lcdproc/0.5.4/lcdproc-0.5.4.tar.gz/download

Feedback most welcome.</edit:>

mdima

@fmertz:

https://github.com/downloads/fmertz/sdeclcd/sdeclcd.so
Feedback most welcome.

Thanks a lot! Can you pls tell me which parameters the driver supports?
Standards are: Device, Size, Contrast, Brightness, Offbrightness, Speed, and so on… also if you can tell me which are the default values for all the parameters...

Thanks!
Michele

fmertz

@mdima:

Can you pls tell me which parameters the driver supports?

Short version: None
Longer version: This is fixed PC parallel port0. No Watchguard model have this on any other port. As this is a pre-made firewall appliance, and not for self-built setups, there is no parameter. Also, there used to be a back light time out, but I took it out. The documentation rates the back light at a half life of only 3,000 Hours. I figured I might as well save whatever life is left by keeping the light on for just 30 sec after a key is pressed, but off otherwise.

mdima

@fmertz:

@mdima:

Can you pls tell me which parameters the driver supports?

Short version: None

crystalline! :D

ok, thanks for the answer!

mdima

Hello,
after some thought about how "to make it safe" and avoid users to mess up with the drivers, I added a lot of improvements to LCDProc-dev.

Added in the com port selection: com1 (dev/cua0), com1 and com2 alternative (dev/cuau0 and dev/cuau1). The default port is anyway "com2" in order to avoid to interfer with the terminal port;
Added com port speed selection;
Added Contrast/Brightness/Offbrightness selection. Since the drivers use different ranges for this values, they are specified in % and chosen from a combo-box, so there's no possibility that the users can specify not valid values. For each model/driver is specified a custom default values, based on the previous code (I think that values come from experience on the specific panels, so it's better to keep them).
If the driver do not allow one or more of this settings they are just ignored by code.

When the new version will be published in the repository just update or reinstall the package. Don't forget to set the com port speed at the first run.

Enjoy!
Michele

mdima

Hello,
I just updated the package to version 0.6. The only change was to integrate the sdeclcd driver.

Ciao,
Michele

joe_cowboy

Good job on adding the server deamon interface changes. Looks good and like the drop down % on the brightness and contrast. I used the drop down for brightness and contrast works great because could not use default. So, perfect. Keep up the good work.

-Joe Cowboy

mdima

@joe_cowboy:

Good job on adding the server deamon interface changes. Looks good and like the drop down % on the brightness and contrast. I used the drop down for brightness and contrast works great because could not use default. So, perfect. Keep up the good work.
-Joe Cowboy

Hi Joe Cowboy,
glad you liked it! Actually was your idea, I just needed a while to think about it and to find out on how to make it safe for all the drivers…

Ciao,
Michele

jpsb

@mdima:

@jpsb:

I just use the HD44780 in the driver list, and by connecting the display, the system log shows "LCD2USB device found"
The display is a little slow, and works best by refresh frequency on 5 or 10 sec.

Hi JPSB,
mmhhh… seems strange... how many screens you have active? Did you have the same problem also with the previous version?

Thanks,
Michele

Hi Michele

Yes I had the same problem with last version.
I only have "Interface Traffic" and "Load" running.
But the new version with options to change contrast, etc. makes the display is running perfectly.
I have not had any luck getting the new driver "hd44780 Fast" to run.
But as I said, it runs perfectly with the other changes.
So once again, many thanks for a fantastic job.

See my youtube video of the display:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=moL-x1HpPew&feature=autoplay&list=ULmoL-x1HpPew&lf=mfu_in_order&playnext=46

mdima

Hi jpsb,
this is awesome! I remove the "hd44780 Fast" driver, since it's useless.

Thank you for the feedback!

AFAIK there's only 1 thing missing as new feature: the "output" commands to control the optional LEDs on the panel (some models have). I just need 2-3h of relax one evening to do that.

Michele